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T. W. BEACH-ER.

(No Model.)

. HAT.

No. 354,882. Patented Dec. 28,1886;

IIVVE/VTOI? WITNESSES:

Arm/V 5 (No Model.)

H. JONES.

PUMP CYLINDER. No. 354,982. I Patented D00. 2.8. 1886.

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u. PETERS. PhahLmmgu-lphu, Washington. n.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

THOMAS \V. B RAOHER, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y.

H AT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 354,882, dated December 28, 18E 6.

Application filed January 14, 1886. Serial No. 188,547. (No model.)

. To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THoMAs W. BRAOHER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Hats, of which the following is a complete specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a side view of a hat having my invention. Fig. 2 is a detailed top viewof the curl of such hat. Figs. 3, 4., and 5 are cross-sections through different forms of hats having my invention. Figs. 6 and 7 are face views of blanks for the clasps which are employed. Figs. 8 and 9 are enlarged cross-sections of the curl or binding-strip and clasp of the hat, to which hereinafter further reference will be made.

The object of this invention is to increase the durability of the curl or'edge of a hat, to produce more uniform results in regard to shape, improve the contour, lessen the cost, and to make the curl or edge stronger and stifferthan the rest of the hat.

Hats as heretofore made, speaking more particularly of the-semi-stiff felt hats, are either constructed with the crown, brim, and curl in one piece, which is an expensive procedure and leaves the curl as flexible as the balance of the hat, or the curls have been made of separate material, as, for instance, in Patent No. 160,091.

Myinvention consists,principally,in supplying the curl or edge of a hat, no matter of what material the same be made, with a circumferential compressed binding-spring, by means of which the flexible curl or edge is rendered stiff and durable.

edge of this curlis clasped by a metallic spring, B, which is U-shaped in cross-section, as in Fig. 4 of the drawings.

This circumferential spring, when properly attachedto the edge of the brim or curl, will embrace the same, being compressed thereon .so as to stiffen the same, and will thereby permit the remaining parts of the hat to be made of lighter material than if this stiff spring were only placed in a tubu-' lar pocket, as heretofore.

Fig. 3 shows the stiff spring B applied to the edge of the brim of a hat which has no special curl. Where the U-shaped spring is used, (I mean that represented in Fig. 4,) its ends, where they meet, are by preference. se-.

cured to the curl by a clasp, G. This clasp is made of a blank of the form shown in Fig. 6, or that shown in Fig. 7, and is bent into U- shaped cross-section, the serrated or flat edge being turned or pressed into the body of the brim or curl, as in Fig. 9. By means of this clasp O the spring will be firmly held in position. At any rate, it is myintention tosecure the spring B to the hat so that it shall be immovable thereon. The employment of this stiff spring B enables me to utilize for the brims of the felt hats of the kind shown in Fig. l the roundings-that is, the waste oval rings which result from the trimming of hatbodies, and which at present are thrown away, because if they were stitched as curls to a hat they would be without sufficient body or resisting power to permit their employment.

When, however, such oval ring d of felt, (see Fig. 2 of the drawings,) which otherwise would be waste, is bound on the inner edge with the compressed metallic spring B, or with a flat spring incorporated into its edge, as in Fig. 5, it receives the necessary rigidity to permit its use on the hat, in which case the outer edge of this ring (I, after having been trimmed to correspond with the edge of the brim, is stitched to the latter or fastened thereto in any other suitable manner.

The spring shown in Fig. 5 can be fastened by stitches or clasps.

I do not claim putting U-shaped or other springs into tubular pockets, as in Patent No. 74,392.

I claim- 1. The hat having the periphery and a margin of each face of its brim covered with a con,

tinuous circumferential spring, B, which constitutes a binding and a stiffener for the brim, as specified. V v

2. The combination of a. hat with a detached curl of fabric which has its inner edge provided with a circumferential spring, as described.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a de tached hat-curl of fabric combined with the circumferential spring on the inner edge, as

described.

THOMAS XV. BRAOHER.

lVit-nesses:

CHARLES G. M. THOMAS, HARRY M. TURK. 

